Improvement in many-cham b ered-cylin der flre-arms



Ao. W. WHITTIE R Revolver.

Patented May 30, 1837.

No v216.

J im

Y UNITED STATES PATENT @EEIGEo OTIS W. VVHITTIER, OF ENFIELD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MANY-CHAMBERED-CYLINDER FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216, dated May llO, 1837.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, O'rIs W. WHITTIER, ot' Eueid, in the county of Grafton and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fire-Arms, and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings ofthe same, making part of this specification.

The nature ot' my invention consists in' having a metallic revolving cylinder containing any requisite number of chambers, all pointing in the same direction of the barrel, afxed at the rear ofthe barrel, and revolving and bringing up the chambers successivelyin contact with the bore ofthe barrel for a discharge by means of a spring with a cam or pin in the end thereof, Vwhich runs in spiral grooves or chali-` nels made on the circuml'erence of the revolving cylinder, eonnectedwith the percussionhammer, and turning said revolving cylinder by the movement of cooking the gun.

To enable those skilled in the art of making tire-arms to make and use my invention, I proceed to describe its construction and operation, and is as follows:

I havea main barrel, A, Fig. l, with the bore extending through from end to end. 1 then make any number of' chambers, B, I wish, sut'- licient in length to hold a charge ot powder i and ball or shot. These chambers are iixed in a circular order, all pointing in the same direction with the main barrel, and are combined with each other by passing through heads at each end; or all ot them may be bored in a solid cylindrical block of steel, iron, or other metal, as seen ntf, Fig. 5. Then I have a plate, O, Fig. 3, fixed to the top of the stock and extending lrom the stock forward, sufficient in length to cover the cylinder ot chambers. I have two braces, q and g q, attached to this plate on the under side, extending downward far enough to receive a hollow spindle or pivot,- Fig. 7, which I make fast by its running through said braces at each end. Then I have a hole, Fig. 3, in the forward brace, exactly opposite the highest chamber, near the top ofthe brace, into which I tix my main barrel by means ot' a screw, g, on the end ot' the barrel or on the brace. I make my hind brace, q, ot' suicient dimensions to cover the whole ot' the rear of the revolving cylinder.

In the rear ot' each chamber in the revolving i cylinder, Fig. 6, I placethe cones tor the reception ot' the percussioncaps or primers by sinking them, so that the brace q will not interfere with them when performing its revolutions. I have a hole, d, in the hind brace, on the right ofthe stock, for the convenience of putting the caps on the cones, and another hole, a, nea-r the top ot the brace, in rear ot' the chamber to be discharged, for the percussion-11am mer, a, Fig. 2, to pass through in striking the cap, and a mortise, i', Fig. 4, directly over this, for a springbar, i, Fig. 2, which is attached to the hammer have a cam or pin, A, Fig. 2, that runs in the .groove on the und. r side of the plate, Fig. 3,

that passes over the revolving barrel, and also runs in the spiral grooves on the circumference of the revolving cylinder, and which turns it by the movement ol'cocking the gun and bringing the chambers successively in contact with the bore of the main barrel. l

I also. construct a safety-rod, t', Fig.i2, which I attach .to the trigger it, so that the I iniling the trigger urges the rod l forward through a hole, t, Fig. 3, in the rear brace successively into the holes t, Fig. 6, in the revolving cylinder, which are brought up successively bythe revolutions of the revolving cylinder. These holes I make in a circle concentric with the circle ot' cones, and are placed equidistant between each two of them, and make the hole in thebrace to meet them inreturn, so that in case the cylinder is not in its proper place the safety-rod cannot enter the aperture, and therefore will not admit the trigger to act upon the dog, and a discharge cannot take place until the revolving cylinder is in its right position. I likewise make as many spiral grooves, o, Fig. 5, on the outside ofthe revolving cylinder as there are chambers in it running diagonally from the forward end of one chamber to the rear end ot' the next, so that in cocking the piece the, pin A, Fig. 2, in the spring hereinbcfore described will run `in this groove from the fore end of one chamber to the rear of the next, thus causing it to move one chamber at atime. I also make as many more grooves, s, Fig. 5, running in a parallel line with the chamber, and starting from the rear ot" each spiral or diagonal groove and of equal depth at the coinmence1nei1t,lnit graduallyapproachingthesurface at the forward end of the chambers, so that the pin A on the spririg r, Fig. 2, when ring the gun, is thrown forward up the parallel groove until it drops over into the next spiral groove, and is in readiness to bring up the next chamber, as before, and so on in succession.

The like revolutions of the revolving cylinder maybe obtained byhaving similar grooves on theinside of the revolving cylinder, as shown in Fig. 6 at y, and by having a slot, y, in the hollow spindle, Fig. 7, through which the pin on the spring before described may operate in the grooves, the spring in that case beingkat` tached to the under side ot' the hammer.

I construct the lock in the following manner: I have a curved hammer, a, Fig. 2, attached to a perpendicular plate, a, connected with the plate n by means of staples d cl. The hammer is thrown forward by a folding or spiral spring, b b, in the rear of the hammer. On the top of the hammer a, at or near the fore end, I fasten the spring r, that holds the pin A, which moves in the grooves r s, Fig. 5, as before described. The fore end ofthe hammer is fixed in such a manner that when thrown forward it strikes the cap. I x the `dog l, Fig. 2, in the usualk form, and it catches in a notch, c, on the under sidefof the hammer when it is drawn back by means of a knob, 10,011 the right side ofthe stock. The dog is acted upon by a trigger, 11in the usual manner; 7c, feather-spring for throwing back the safety-rod m, feather-sprin g for pressing the dog into the notch c when the hammer is drawn back; c c, metallic box, in which the folding spring is placed.

Figrepresentsasection of two of thecha1nbers, showing the mannerofinserting the cones for the percussioncaps; c c, the cones; ff, the chambers; g g, partitions between the cones, which may be used instead of sinking the cones in the face of the revolving cylinder.

.i Fig/1 represents the guard and rear plate; o, the guard; q, rear plate. The letters a d i a q r tp correspond to the same letters in Figs. l, 2, 3. z z are tubes to suffer the explosion from the vent to escape when the chamber is not used.

Fig. 2 represents a section of a gun of full l size, in which t is the stock, and s the patch- Fig. 9 represents a sectional view ofthe inside of the aperture for the spindle, grooved in a similar manner to the outside ot' the cylinder, as before described; r, rectangular grooves; s, diagonal grooves.

Fig. 10 is a view of lock, showing another formof safety-rod; r, safety-rod turning on a pivot,p, in the rear plate, attached to the trigger t by a connecting-rod, c; d, the spring-dog; `h, hammer; fn, notch in the hammer,into which the dog enters; s, spring ot' the trigger; c, spindle; w, spring-stop to secure the spindle.

Fig. 11 is a view of rear plate, showing the end of spindle c and the stop m (represented by dotted lines) passingthrough the rear plate, and entering the spindle. r is the safety-rod.

Fig. 12 representsa section through the barrel, showing the manner of riding it. c is the bore.

Y The mode of ritling the barrel used by me differs from the com mon mode in an essential pointnamely, in commencing at the breech with a gentle twist or spiral curve, and gradually increasing it toward the muzzle, where it receives a shorter twist, by which method the ball receives a rapid whirling motion when thrown from the bore, which is essential to correct firing.

Fig. 13 is a view of the outside of the bar- I'el. i

Fig. 14 represents a longitudinal section ot" the cylinder, showing t-he form of the rectangular groove, and the commencement of the diagonal groove where they unite and i'orm a ct is a i continuous groove around the cylinder. rectangular groove; b, end where it unites with the diagonal groove.

Fig. 15 represents the spindlein which cis 1 the grooves on the surface ofthe cylinder, running parallel with its axis over the center of one of the chambers, and falling at the end into au oblique groove, where they meet and form a continuous groove, and when the hammer is drawn back to be cocked said pin being in one of the grooves running diagonally or obliquely from the forward end of the rectangular groov'ej ust mentioned back to the rear end ofthe next rectangular groove formed over the center of the next chamber', which causes the cylinder to turn the exact distance required to bring the next chamber in a true line with the bore of the barrel fr another discharge, and so on in succession. f

2. In making the rectangular parallel groove deep at the rear end and shallow at the forward end, to cause the pin to fall from one of the rectangularintoone of the diagonal grooves to shift the chalnber.

3. The springfbar r and pin A, Fig. 2, attached to the hammer for turning the cylinder, in combination with before-described grooves or chambers.

4. The safety-rod or `guard-pin i', attached to the trigger, which at every discharge is driven into a corresponding aperture in the rear end of the chamber for securing it when in its proper place for firing, but should the cylinder not be in its proper position will strike against the solid part ot'it, and thus prevent the trigger acting upon the dog.

oris w. wnirriER. u Witnesses:

WM. P. ELLIOT, WM. Brsnor. 

